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Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 1 · Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay — chapter 66 of 68 · ~474 words · public domain

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Settle, Elkanah. See Flecknoe and Settle.

Sidney, Algernon, condemned and executed on scanty and illegal evidence on a charge of implication in the Rye House Plot of 1683.

Somers, President of the Council (1708-10) a great Whig leader (he had defended the Seven Bishops) and patron of literature (1650-1716).

Spinola, Spanish marquis and general who served his country with all his genius and fortune for naught (1571-1630).

Sporus, a favourite of Nero. Owing to his resemblance to that emperor’s wife he was, after her death, dressed as a woman, and went through a marriage ceremony with Nero.

Stafford, Lord, executed in 1680, on a false charge of complicity in Oates’s Popish Plot.

Stanley, Mr., fourth Earl of Derby, the “Rupert of Debate.”

Stella, Esther Johnson, the daughter of one of Lady Giffard’s friends.

St. Martin’s Church, the site of the present G. P. 0., formerly a monastery, church, and “sanctuary.”

Sudbury and Old Sarum, rotten boroughs, the one in Suffolk disfranchised in 1844, the other near Salisbury in 1832.

Sudder Courts, courts of criminal and civil jurisdiction which, in Macaulay’s day, existed alongside the Supreme Court, but which, since 1858, have with the Supreme Court, been merged in the “High Courts.”

Sunnuds, certificates of possession.

Surajah Dowlah, better Suraj-ud-daulah.

Swan River, in the S.W. of Australia, to which country the name of New Holland was at first given.

Switzer, that brave, Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss reformer, who fell at Cappel in 1531.

TALLEYRAND, French diplomatist (1754-1831), rendered good service to the Revolution, was influential under Buonaparte and Louis Philippe’s ambassador to England.

Talma, Francis Joseph, a famous French actor of tragic parts, who passed part of his life in England (1763-1826).

Talus, Sir Artegal’s iron man, who in Spenser’s Faery Queen, Book v., represents the executive power of State Justice.

Tamerlane, the Tartar who invaded India in 1398, and whose descendant, Baber, founded the Mogul dynasty.

Tanjore, a district of Madras, noted for its fertility; ceded to the East India Company by the Marathas in 1799. The town of Tanjore is about 300 miles south from Madras.

Temple, Lord Pitt’s brother-in-law. Cf. Macaulay’s severe description of him in the second “Essay on Chatham.” (vol. v. of this edition).

Themis, Justice.

Theodosius, emperor of the East 378-395, and for a short time of the West also. He partly checked the Goths’ advance.

Theramenes, Athenian philosopher and general (third century B.C.), unjustly accused and condemned to drink hemlock.

Theseus, the, one of the most perfect statues in the “Elgin marbles,” of the British Museum.

Thurtell, John, a notorious boxer and gambler (b. 1794), who was hanged at Hertford on January 9th, 1824, for the brutal murder of William Weare, one of his boon-companions.

Thirty-Ninth, i.e. the Dorsets.

Thyrsis, a herdsman in the Idylls of Theocritus; similarly a shepherd in Virgil’s Eclogues; hence a rustic or shepherd.

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